Good: I acquired a few nice, new tools, but, much more importantly, I have a wonderful new shop to use them in : )
Bad: All that time spent building the shop left little time to use it : ( Oh well, I'll have more free time in 2004 : )
How about you? What kind of year did you have in 2003?
Rob
Good: I started woodworking! I got started in June, and boy am I hooked. I can think of 14 things that I've made since then. I have most of them photographed on my website below.
Bad: I spend all my time dream> 2003 is winding down. Time, perhaps, to take a moment and reflect on the
All in all..... a good year.
I was "volunteered" to make a few projects for the family which were both challenging and fun. Sister-in-laws kitchen has new raised-panel cabinet doors and drawers (40 total), made some 3" wide custom moldings for their new bay window. Niece has a new double-glazed French door set, a matching single door and window - all made out of maple to blend in with a home that was built in 1805 (major renovation going on).
Country kitchen table (4'x7') for my sister's kitchen renovation project but got put on hold. The top is made but still need to turn the legs (need to borrow Tom Plamann's lathe...;-) and finish the frame for that project. Also made a short stool with a fold down foot rest inspired by a Stickley stool I saw at their store. This is for sitting on to take your shoes off (no shoes allowed on you know who's carpets..) - still need to glue it up and finish it.
Some new toys in the shop which were absolutely necessary to do the other projects.... I think the wife saw right thru that line...
The personal pluses outweighed the minuses by a bunch, so I can't complain - and if I did, who would listen...
Life is what you make it - enjoy it now.
Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year,
Bob S.
New downsized home and shop. No mortgage, no debt, no job. Hey, does this mean I'm retired?
-Doug
I realized I may not be a "traditional woodworker." That is, someone who builds beautiful things that will be passed on from generation to generation. I seem to derive great pleasure from building useful things, using minimum effort and minimum investment of materials.
I have built a couple things SWMBO doesn't mind having in the living room where strangers might see them, but most of what I do is slapping useful stuff together quickly.
I thought what I was missing was more tools. Surely if I had a jointer, planer and bandsaw I could start building beautiful furniture and cabinets. I was fortunate to find someone wanting to sell those items and having room on a credit card I got 'em.
What I've found is that these tools help me do a faster / better job of slapping stuff together. For example, SWMBO had an ironing board hanging in the gar^H^H^Hshop. The BORG hanger was soon to fail so I selected a piece of 2x6" scrap (of course ) and made a simple holder. When I tried to hang the ironing board I discovered the 2x6" was a little too thick. Just a few seconds later the bandsaw took a slice off. It did a great job of resawing, but the purpose wasn't resawing -- it was just to make a big piece of wood thinner. Without the bandsaw I might have fired up the belt sander or -- horror of horrors -- I may have pounded on it with a hammer to make it a little thinner where it needed to be. ;-)
My router table lets me make monitor holders with good rabbets from scrap pieces. When I'm not building something specific, maybe 50% or more of the cuts my table saw makes haven't been measured at all! I use the TLAR method a lot -- That Looks About Right. The inclined bookshelf on my desk was made from two pieces of scrap and was 100% TLAR.
I guess I'm Og the caveman with electric rocks.
-- Mark
On Tue 30 Dec 2003 06:15:48p, "Specter" wrote in news:UyoIb.882323$9l5.881746@pd7tw2no:
Got the garage wired. Got a used bandsaw, a new (discontinued DW733) planer, a vintage scroll saw (needs a motor), a Harbor Freight DC, and a beat-to-death Sears drill press (needs motor and prayers). Got two old motors. One works. And a Hitachi 12V for Christmas. Built a rolling lumber/plywood/scrap storage unit, a nightstand, a cedar chest, and a couple boxes. Ripped out garage shelves, got a deal on some South American walnut and white oak 2x4s, stacked them where the shelves used to be. Built a cedar fence. Filled lumber/plywood/scrap storage unit to the brim with stuff laying around garage and basement. Built steps off other side of back deck. Laid flagstone for landing. Building a workbench/assembly table using the white oak and mdf from the shelves. Bought a little '94 Toyota standard pickup. Used pickup to haul lumber, bandsaw, planer, DC, and christmas tree. SWMBO likes pickup.
But SWMBO still thinks it's a garage so everything gets shoved into one stall when I'm not playing with it so SWMBO's subaru isn't under the pine tree. Since it's an unheated detached garage in Wisconsin, that's not a problem right now.
I've had worse years. But I think the next list I make will have "insulated that #@$@% garage and put in a heater" in it somewhere.
Dan
I thought I had retired in 2001, Government job ended (cutbacks) Didn't want to move to D.C. to keep going with a Govt. job so I took an early retirement. Meant more time with my kids. So then I started dabbling in Real Estate. Sort of like dabbling in power tools, one just isn't enough. So in 2003 I got real busy buying some, (14 this year) rehabbing most, selling some, being a landlord, a developer, an accountant, and an amateur sawdust baron.
2004 promises less.........much less, gotta get the boat finished, gotta wet a lot of fishing line, take SWMBO and visit my Brother in Hawaii (he doesn't know yet) And enjoy this house right here on the water!Dave
I've been both a U.S. government employee and a contractor to the government. (Some people I know call the contractors "Trough Feeders" -- references to pigs.)
IMO the "Privatization" didn't save much, if anything. What's the learning curve for a flock of contractors who don't know squat when they get the contract, and don't have the authority to do anything anyway?
-- Mark
I have to tell you, after being with the Gov't for a while I am truly amazed that anything gets accomplished in this country. There are so many chiefs and chief wannabe's protecting their little slice of the pie, and absolutely will not allow anyone else to cross that line. Sort of, I do my job, you do yours, and when we are done, then and only then will we get together to make it work. You're so right about contractors having no power. Especially the ones that have the best ideas. "That's not how it's done, no matter how good it is." or, "Submit your ideas and documentation, we'll take a look at it someday soon."
On 12-29-03 I had my best suggestion killed by the contractors. (We are sub-contractors.) There is no doubt in my mind my idea is in line with legislation and the intent of the legislation, but it's simply not possible to get it through the multitude of levels to get it to the point a
*government* employee would say, "Yeah, that's what we want."Your tax dollars at work. :-(
-- Mark
I built a pile of jigs, tuned up my TS, and tamed it, sort of. I started the year slapping stuff together out of whatever junk I could salvage. The hobby came back to the forefront of my attention when my son came back from Cub Scout camp with a cheap catapult kit. Some free plywood and a desire to do it better eventually lead to the "Rock Chucker Mark IV" displayed on my web site. I posted some discussion about it to my then-current haunt on alt.os.linux.mandrake, and the links that followed eventually inspired me to build my endtable-on-a-handtruck railroad track trebuchet.
From the trebuchet, some BRIO-style trains, and assorted odd items. At some point I left AOLM and started hanging out here on the Wreck again, after having been away for quite a long time. Eventually, a pineywood chess box. After that, I finally used up several years' worth of accumulated free wood, and I had to suck it up and spend some money for lumber.
That was a real turning point for me. Lumber meant surfacing, and surfacing meant I had to have some way to do it. I bought a hand plane, then spent a month figuring out how to sharpen and tune it. I discovered the sublime, near-orgasmic joy of working with walnut. I cut my first dovetails, made my first finger joints, got some decent chisels at last, and mastered their care and use.
I spent the last quarter involved with two projects. One a walnut/pine checker box with a fake one-piece kerfed pine board. The other, my /chef d'?uvre/, a chess box made of glorious walnut, with maple for contrast.
I picked up a 15" drill press, a JET mini lathe, a Delta 16" VS scroll saw, a #4, a #5, and several good books on subjects like joinery and box making.
Oh, last but not least, I used up my last can of poly, and adopted shellac as my default finish. Hand surfaced walnut, never sanded, finished with shellac. I are uh real wood wrecker now, Chief.
Medical bills out the wazoo. Three people sick three times at $100 a shot. Not enough to touch the deductible, so the insurance paid dick.
Humidity problems, drainage problems, termite problems. My house needs about $20-50,000 worth of work if I want it to last as long as I do. I don't have it; can't get it. I'm going to have to just sit back and hope nothing falls apart before I can afford to fix it right.
Got my son a compound bow and some arrows, made him a target, and he hasn't even touched the thing yet. I figure this long after Christmas if he hasn't asked about it yet, he doesn't care. I wouldn't have been able to keep my hands off of it at his age, but I suppose I have underestimated the compelling power of Pukeyman.
Discovering the joy of walnut will cost me a fortune. I quickly lost interest in the game of making stuff out of free junk wood, and have developed an appetite for serious hardwood lumber. It's expensive, and I'm all conflicted about it too, because I love trees so much, and hate to kill and cut up the poor little trees to make stupid things that I don't actually need to survive. Couple that with getting a lathe, falling prey to turning addiction, and realizing that I'm going to need some serious dead trees in whole form, and will have to butcher the babies myself. Add to that the discovery that I *enjoy* butchering trees. It's sort of like waking up one day and realizing that you're gay. So much for all my rhetoric about only using recycled wood, and never anything that was killed just for me. Not unless they start making pallets out of FAS grade walnut and packing the trucks with 5" square walnut dunnage anyway. :)
Anyway, all in all a good year. I even got laid some.
(No, I'm not gay.)
On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 00:15:48 GMT, "Specter" Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:
snip
it had its ups and downs, but overall, my wife is now cancer free, my house is still in my name, my truck still runs, my dog didn't die this year, and i still have most of my hair and sanity
sheesh,,, is this the start of an "anti-country" song? :)
peace to all in 04
Great news about your Wife, or anybodies significant other in those circumstances. Good health to all, may you be happy with who you are, comfortable where you are, and celebrate with those you care for. Bring our troops home as soon as possible!!
Dave
Left a good job with an excellent company (voluntary downsizing) to follow SWMBO's and my dream to migrate to Boise, ID. (her family is all here, mine's scattered). Lived with the inlaws for about 4 months. (EVERYone should do that at least once =^S ) Experienced being unemployed. Worked as a consultant/contractor for 3 different companies. About to start a F/T job with a 4th. Had a new baby. (well, SWMBO did, not me) Sold a house. Bought a house. New house has a dedicated 10x16" shop attached to the back of the garage. (whaa-hoo!!)
Found an old (12" ? 14" ?) craftsman benchtop scrollsaw at a garage sale for $5. Found about...oh...15 or so BF of red oak tounge-in-groove flooring at a garage sale for $5. Bought a HF DC and added .03 micron bags. Bought a magnetic base + dial caliper to tune the TS. Discovered the joy of a tuned saw.
What? Whaddaya mean did I _build_ anything?!! =^) I'm hoping to get to that in 2004. (when the shop starts to look like something other than a tool catchall) Ok, that's not entirely true: Made a 3 shelf "cleat-system" shelf unit for the shop. (resultant MFD dust was the impetuous for the DC) Built some corner shelves in the rec room/playroom for the kids' TV. (keeps the pb&j out of the DVD and VCR)
Overall, after a year of chaos life is settling down. All 5 of us are healthy. Everyone is sane. God is good.
-aaron "if it dosen't kill you it makes you stronger"
Bad: My nose runs, my feet hurt and I don't love Jesus.
Good: Had a terrific Christmas: an 8" jointer (vintage 1957) and a Lee Valley scraper plane (new) from S. Claus.
Well, acceptable, I guess. Business was the best I've had in four years of being self-employed, but then, my stress level was at it's highest. Kids went all year without being sick and out of school. Bought new car for my wife, new tractor for me, and started site work on a new house because we want to add to the family.
As far as woodworking goes, I spent the first three months of 2003 puttering around the shop and then managed to fill up all of the available space all at once with remnants of another engineering business that went under, as I bought out their equipment and files. I managed to squeak out most of a new deck for the house before the shop got buried. It's still buried.
Next year promises to be a bit better for the woodworking - new shop planned (960 square feet) with 10' ceilings and a loft for the 8 year old's drum set. My Woodmizer sawmill is running smoothly and I have to find room for several thousand board feet of lumber. I committed myself to building all the kitchen cabinets, built-ins, trim and flooring for the new house, to save money. I guess that's where all of the lumber will end up. I'll be spending this weekend and the next several after that cutting timbers for the house frame (32 x 44 raised post timberframe cape). I guess that constitutes woodworking.... Plus, I'll finally have shop space so I can set up my lathe (my favorite woodworking tool) and use all the chunks and burls I've been squirreling away for the past three years.
Jon E
- enjoying warm sunshine in southern VT
In article , snipped-for-privacy@shaw.ca says... ... snip
All in all, 2003 was a good year. Woodworking wise:
1) I completed the cherry entry cabinet I had been working on for almost two years. 2) Built a quilt display case for my wife, andIn what started out as a simple change to improve sheet good storage in the shop,
3) Insulated and put up wall board in shop, 4) Replaced the single-bay garage door with a patio door and windows for improved lighting, 5) air-conditioned the shop, 6) got a good start on building storage drawers for under the workbench, I completed the top half of the drawers in the past 2 weeks and am well on the way to getting the lower drawer sets built.Wishing everyone a happy new year and productive and enjoyable 2004!
On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 11:11:26 -0600, "Bob Schmall" brought forth from the murky depths:
Bwahahahahah! I love it!
Cool. Vintage WHAT from '57? (An 8"er is almostacarrier.)
I ordered that Shop Fox mortiser at 10am Monday morning and it arrived this morning, almost precisely 48 hours later. It's quieter than I imagined and the speed differential over hand-cut mortises (especially MINE) is amazing. Guess what I'll be doing next year? (That's 16 hours from now.)
---------------------------------------------------------- Please return Stewardess to her original upright position. --------------------------------------
Rockwell Delta. Handles nearly my entire toy airplane collection.
Kewl. An in-depth report is expected. Felice Ano Nueva and all that.
Bob
On Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:58:58 GMT, "Bob Schmall" brought forth from the murky depths:
You ARE going to repaint it from that oooooogly gray, aren't you? (lightly praying)
Will do. But I won't break it up into 3 short romps like some people I know recently did. ;)
Nappy Hoo Year, Y'all!
---------------------------------------------------------- Please return Stewardess to her original upright position. --------------------------------------
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.